Wires, such as, for example, guidewires are used in a wide variety of medical procedures, such as, for example, in interventional cases. Wire-guided procedures include, for example, radiology, cardiology and nephrology procedures. Guidewires are typically wound about plastic disks or spools and are pre-packaged with the plastic disk or spool. Once a package is opened, a sterilizing solution, such as, for example, saline may be used to wet the guidewire. The wetted guidewire may then be inserted into a patient adjacent to a selected site. A medical device, such as, for example, a catheter, may then be slid along the guidewire to deliver the medical device to the selected site. After a guidewire is used in a particular procedure, it may be removed from the patient and cleaned. In most cases, the guidewire is coiled up and placed into a basin or other container having saline or another sterile liquid therein, where it remains until it is reused in a subsequent procedure.
In some cases, multiple guidewires may be required for a single procedure. For example, when multiple devices are being delivered to a selected portion of a patient's anatomy or various distinct portions of the patient's anatomy, it may be desirable to use one guidewire for each device that is being delivered and/or to use one guidewire for each portion of the patient's anatomy. It may also be desirable to use a guidewire having certain characteristics for a portion of a procedure and to use another guidewire having different characteristics for another portion of the procedure. For example, it may be desirable to use a relatively thin guidewire during a portion of the procedure and to use a relatively thick guidewire during another portion of the procedure. When multiple guidewires are used, the guidewires may become tangled with one another, making it difficult to differentiate which tip is associated with which guidewire and/or spool, for example. Using multiple guidewires also increases the likelihood that at least one of the guidewires will be lost, become contaminated, etc. Conventional wire holders or organizers cannot facilitate the rapid exchange of guidewires to facilitate an efficient exchange of different types of guidewires used during an interventional procedure. Conventional wire holders or organizers also lack the ability to prevent the risk of wire contamination and/or control a guidewire during a procedure. This disclosure describes an improvement over these prior art technologies.